


wild women don't have the blues

by joatlas



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Chapter 2: Horseshoe Overlook (Red Dead Redemption 2), Crossover, F/F, Grief/Mourning, Slow Burn, easily the dumbest thing i've written let's goooo, it only spoils like the first chapter of the game, pretend to be cowboys, spock is gonna say yeehaw i dont know when but i promise he will, trekkies you can read this if you don't know red dead honestly, twists and turns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:20:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28893546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joatlas/pseuds/joatlas
Summary: When Sadie sees a ship crash in the valley that night, she doesn't expect people to come out of it. Pretending to be simple ranchers, Spock & Uhura try to blend in Valentine, not aware that Sadie Adler knows more than she lets on. Why are they here? And where are they from?
Relationships: Nyota Uhura/Sadie Adler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. coming from the sky

**Author's Note:**

> I swear I have a plot idea, it will get fun, I'm not going in blind for once. I mean yes I just wanted to write cowboy!Uhura but, well, I got more ambitious. I'm going to fill up the tags as I go because I don't want to spoil too much about where the story is going. This is also the reason why, for now, I'm going to keep mostly to Sadie's POV, though that might change later, because I want to keep the mystery on why/how Spock & Uhura are here. Anyways this is just a fun little fic, I hope you guys enjoy it!!

Sadie is awake with a start. The night is dark on Horseshoe Overlook and a light breeze caresses her face as she sits on her sleeping bag. Every night, almost, at this hour, she wakes up. She doesn’t always remember why, but on the moving surface of her memory, she sees faces reflectec, she sees blood, hears a sour laugh, and does not dare to look further, shakes her head and waits for sleep to come back to her. But before she can think on that, tonight, the sky suddenly lights up. The wind stars howling louder, bending trees and lifting up the side of the tents. And above her astounded eyes, a giant carcass of metal, suspended in the air, goes down towards the valley where the river flows peacefully. Sadie cannot keep her eyes away from the spectacle, and she has no time to wonder what this is, as the metal structure crashes in the trees right beside the river, with distant snapping sounds that vaguely sound like gunshots. The rest of the camp doesn’t react, all of them fast asleep. Uncle is supposed to be on watch duty at this hour, but he’s visibly asleep. Grumbling to herself, she grips the rifle by her side and walks silently to her horse. She guides it silently to the outer part of the camp before mounting it, heading for the river down below. In a few minutes, she’s there and she can see, in a heap of branches, the metal structure, fuming and glowing under the moonlight. Sadie stares at it, for a moment, before voices start emerging from that direction, making her jump. She slides behind a rock, her hand fiercely gripping her pistol. 

“Spock to the Enterprise” A man’s voice. “We are stranded. We are at a high risk of being discovered by the local population.” Well, he can cross that off his list. “Entreprise, do you copy? Captain Kirk, do you copy?” There is a pause. “Well, Lieutenant, it looks like we have lost contact with the ship.”

Captain? Lieutenant? Were they military? That would be bad news indeed. Sadie thinks she ought to get back to camp and tell everyone. Only she wants to know who these people are, needs to hear more. She definitely can’t risk getting out of hiding with her rifle if they’re military officers, with all that trouble they’re having with the Pinkertons and the Sheriff already. She wishes it’s all a strange dream, even though truly she feels like it is all real. 

“You said this was just reconnaissance!” Strange, a woman’s voice. The lieutenant, a woman? Strange.   
“There is always a risk, Lieutenant, now it is time to examine our options. There is no beaming possible at the present moment, and the Captain…” 

At this point they have walked on the other side of the structure and Sadie cannot hear them anymore. She waits a little more, but still not hearing anything, she starts to slowly back away, taking the opportunity to go report back to camp. She doesn’t know what needs reporting though, exactly, seemingly military, in the area, do not appear hostile, strange vehicle that floats in the air, they were talking to someone that isn’t there. No, she sounds insane. She can’t tell anyone in the gang, they’ll think her last shred of sanity has finally left her. As she’s going up the hill with her horse, she heard a cracking sound again and turns to see that the patch of forest where they were is completely on fire, a strange, slightly purple-coloured fire that eats the metal rapidly, like it’s a piece of paper. Sadie shrugs and turns around. 

She tells no one of what she saw, the next day. As they’re drinking hot coffees, Charles is the only one to comment on the burned up patch of forest, looking like a stain in the sweet & perfect valley. Pearson says a camper might’ve been too ambitious with his roasted rabbit, makes everyone chuckle. 

Later that day, she’s sent to town with Lenny to buy some supplies. Nothing big, some ammo, coffee, cans of fruits or two for the women, sack of potatoes. On the way there, as they’re riding quietly, she asks Lenny : 

“Hey, nothing woke you up last night?”  
“No, slept like a baby.” He says and laughs. “Why?”  
“No reason.”

She looks pensive. Maybe it was a dream after all. There is no way no one heard the noise. And that thing, in the sky. Gives her shivers to think about it. Lenny’s sent to the gun shop and she heads for the general store, enters and vaguely gestures with the tip of her hat to the owner, heading for the stack of coffee boxes. A woman’s there, black, dressed like a man, Sadie ain’t seen her before around town. She would’ve noticed a gal like that walking around Valentine. The woman is looking strangely at some canned food. Usually, Sadie doesn’t really make small talk with strangers, or anyone for that matter, but without reason, she ventures to ask : 

“You new ‘round town?”

The woman turns to her and looks surprised. 

“Yes.” She says after a moment.   
“Riding with anyone?” 

Well of course, dressed like that, she ain’t no housewife or prostitute, don’t look like no ranch girl, too clean, can only be in a gang, bounty hunter maybe. 

“No. Just me and my uncle.” Uncle? “We have uhm… a ranch, far back West.”

There’s something about that voice, she can’t put her finger on it, something strange about that voice. She suddenly adds :

“Any chance you’d tell me where I can send some mail? I didn’t see a post office.”  
“A post office?” Sadie laughs. “This ain’t really no fancy town like that, but you can ask at the hotel, or at the train station.”  
“Great, thank you.” She smiles politely. “I’m Uh… Mitchell. Nadine Mitchell, by the way.”  
“Sadie. Adler.” She nods, when Nadine suddenly jolts upright.  
“Well there he is!” 

An equally strange man dressed in ill-fitting jeans and with a comically too large cap stuck on his head enters the shop. No way it’s the uncle, they couldn’t look more different from each other. Except… 

“This is my uncle, Mr Spock.” Nadine smiles.   
Sadie blinks. Impossible. The floating metal, the fire, the voices, the man and the woman, the voice. It was that same voice. 

“Mrs Adler here was…” She doesn’t hear the rest of the sentence because she’s losing the train of her thought. Such a bizarre name, Mr Spock, it cannot be a coincidence… cannot be… They are lying…. But why? So the woman, she’s the lieutenant. Are they looking for them? For the gang? Why would the military be after them? 

Sadie could ask all of that, but she isn’t a fool. Better to keep it to herself, they probably wouldn’t admit to anything and she likes the advantage she’s given.  
Be friendly with the lot, get them in their pocket, appear kind & generous. She’s seen Hosea & Dutch do it when they arrived in town, surely she can. She used to be a nice woman, kind who folks went to for problems, well before… She snaps out of it. 

“It’s really nice to meet you, Mr… Spock? Shall you need anything in town, I’d be glad to help.” She flashes them the nicest smile she can muster. God she hopes no one else saw that, she has no intention of appearing friendly to anyone else.   
“Well, there is one thing, actually.” Nadine gives a quick glance to Spock who silently agrees. “Could you possibly teach us how to ride? A horse?”

Sadie chuckles lightly. They could have thought of a better lie than being ranch farmers. But she’s not about to point that out. 

“Sure I could do that. I can ask one of my… brothers too, good riders the lot of them.”

Something shines in Nadine’s eyes and Sadie finds herself thinking it slightly endearing. 

“You both just need to get horses. Meet us at the train station tomorrow morning. “Kay?”

They nod their heads and Lenny chooses that moment to enter the shop. 

“The hell are you taking so long for Sadie?” 

He sees both strange characters and faintly nods in their direction. Nadine intrigues him most, he frowns. He ends up shaking their hands, he doesn’t have to force himself to be polite like Sadie does, he’s a natural. 

“Lenny Summers, pleasure.”  
“These folks are new in town, I was offering some help.” Sadie explains.   
“You?” Lenny looks a bit dumbfounded and then chuckles. “You were offering help outta the kindness of your heart?” He seems to find it really hilarious, and Sadie has to crush his foot under her boot to make him shut up. “Sure, sure, well, if you folks don’t need anything else we’ll just grab the potatoes and be on our way, uh Sadie?”  
“Yes.” She says coldly, as she’s grabbing coffee boxes. “Very fine day to you.” 

She inclines her hat in their direction and they both nod back, Nadine being the only one smiling. 

The second they are back out of the shop, Lenny starts giggling. 

“What the _hell_ was that? Who’re these people? Why were you so… nice?”  
“Shut up.” She thinks of a lie. “I smelled money that’s all.”  
“Really starting to blend in with us I see eh?” Lenny laughs again. “Wait ‘till they all hear about this.”

She rolls her eyes. Wasn’t expecting that much of a reaction. Yeah, she’d kept to herself since she’d join the gang, but surely they knew she hadn’t been like that forever, didn’t they? There was another idea in her head too, if they were military and had other vehicles of metal, they could help her take down these O’Driscoll’s, bastards wouldn’t see it coming. She would finally have Colm in her hands, murder him like a pig like he did to her husband. Her knuckles stretched at the thought. She could be nice for once, if that was the reward.


	2. the horse lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a quick mention of a horse being harmed in the "fight" scene at the end, skip this paragraph if you don't want to read it.

“There is quite an interference, I hope you can hear me, Captain.”  
“I can, Uhura.” The voice on the other end of the com was scrambled and strange.   
“I doubt the shuttle can be repaired with the tools we have. Spock and I have made the decision to carry on with the mission.”  
“You are not…” The sound got so bad that she could not hear the rest of the sentence. “... to make sure you are able to handle it?”  
“We will. It could be over a week, however. I know all the intel very well.”  
“In the meantime we will [scrambled noises] you back on the ship.” Uhura was about to say goodbye, she really didn’t want anyone to wonder why she was talking to herself in the hotel room while Spock was in the bathroom, but Kirk added. “Oh and Lieutenant?”  
“Yes?”  
“Keep an eye on Spock. He is… clueless at times.”

Of course, in a very comical fashion, it was the moment Spock chose to enter the room. He got close to the device.

“In which ways am I… “clueless” as you say Captain?”

Uhura refrained from laughing. She knew what it meant. Jim was worried about Spock’s safety in a place like this. 

“I cannot hear you very well.” An obvious lie. “Goodbye and good luck, Lieutenant. Kirk out.”

__________

“Who are these people, Mrs Adler?” Arthur Morgan complained as they were riding slowly towards the Valentine train station the next morning. 

He kept calling her Mrs Adler. She didn’t quite like that, but she didn’t really wanna admit it to him. There was something cold, mysterious and ancient about Arthur that impressed her. 

“This woman and her uncle, from a city probably, on the run from something, or someone maybe.”  
“And you agreed to give them riding lessons why exactly?”  
“I ain’t forcing you to come and help. I just figured, since you taught Jack.” Sadie deflected.  
“Yeah, yeah.” He thought. “This is just an odd project, is all.”  
“Maybe I’m tired of cutting up onions.” She growled. 

She had mostly been helping Pearson with the cooking since they got here and needless to say it wasn’t really to her taste. They figured she was too… broken to do anything else. Truth is, she’d never had so much energy. Her desire for revenge fueled her every move and sometimes her own rage scared her, a little. Didn’t think she had all of that in her. 

“Look Morgan, these folks, very strange if you ask me, but don’t say anything.”  
“Well, I’m good at that.”

He chuckled sarcastically and they kept riding for a few minutes in silence. 

When they got there, Nadine waved to them enthusiastically. She was dressed like the day before, pair of jeans, large flannel, large black hat and a gun at her belt. Sadie really wondered what section of the military taught their men how to use guns but not ride horses, it made no sense. Then again, she’d never heard of a woman soldier existing before. The other man was dressed more smartly, in comparison, he had black pants and a green-patterned vest over his shirt. He also bore a gun. He still had the large hat over his head. As planned, they had two horses, looked fine, one was light brown, almost beige, and the other a darker shade of brown. 

“Is that them?” Arthur said under his teeth. Didn’t look too happy about it.   
“Hello Mrs Adler.” Mr Spock said to her as they arrived. “As you have instructed, we have gathered two horses, and the necessary saddles.”

He had a strange way of speaking. Like a preacher, or something. Nadine seemed more natural.

“Great, we’ll go over to the field.” She said as she jumped down from her mount. “Mr Spock, Nadine, this is Arthur Morgan. A fine rider if I know one. Morgan, this is Mr Spock and Nadine Mitchell.”  
“Pleasure.” He said, and Sadie was probably the only one to catch the strong tint of irony in his voice.   
“Your brother, right?” Nadine asked with a smile as they started walking with the horses a little bit past the hill. 

Well, telling them her name was enough as it is, wasn’t going to outright say they’re a gang. Though, if these folks were really from a ranch out West, they would’ve known that just from the look of them. Not many proper women wore jeans and carried rifles, or hung out with men they weren’t married to like Sadie did. 

“Yeah, sure, her brother.” Arthur answered before she could, clearly amused by the situation, in his own special and sarcastic way. “A whole family, we are.”

Sadie could not help but notice Mr Spock did not seem very at ease with the horse. It honestly felt like he’d never seen one before in his life, like he was scared of it. Who the hell were these folks? 

“Right, let’s stop here.” Arthur said with authority after they were in the large, empty field. 

He showed them how to climb onto the horse properly, with quite the gentleness and patience, Sadie thought. Nadine looked determined and seemed to be having quite a fun time, while Spock stood there stone-faced. When they started to trot around, his face didn’t change, but his demeanour did. He clearly didn’t quite know what he was doing and struggled with guiding the horse. Didn’t have much luck when picking it either, the horse was a pretty free-spirited character, kept evading his command to munch on the nearest patch of grass. Sadie came near them and patted the horse’s neck. 

“What’s his name?” She asked casually.  
“He has none.” Spock replied, still trying to get the horse to stop eating and go on.   
“Give him one then.”

The man seemed to think for a moment. 

“If that will help…” He thought again. “His name is Ichaya.”  
“That an Indian name?”

He didn’t answer that, but it sure sounded like it. She could ask Charles later, Spock, Ichaya, maybe that was from a tribe of some sort, in the region, that he’d know of. 

Sadie turned around to look at Nadine. She was making quite the progress, already going a little faster. A natural, clearly. Arthur had gotten on his horse and was riding alongside her, giving her advice. Sadie got on her own one to catch up to them. 

“Doing well I see.” She congratulated Nadine. “I’ll race you soon enough.”

Nadine chuckled. She thought it was a long way off, clearly. They kept training for a moment, not going faster than a trot, just making circles, teaching them how to turn their horses. A couple hours after that, Nadine was good enough at it that she felt confident, and thought not the same could be said exactly of that Spock feller, he kept his composure and didn’t fall, that had to count. Both women were trotting along as Arthur and Mr Spock were staying in the back. 

“So, what do you do, Mrs Adler?”  
“Please, call me Sadie.”  
“Sadie then, any profession?”

Sadie looked at Nadine strangely. 

“Oh you know, do things, here and there. I used to have a ranch.”  
“Your brother too? He looks…” Nadine seemed to take a moment to think. “Well, you know.” She flashed her a lovely smile.   
“I sure don’t.” Sadie smiled too, tinted with irony, pretending not to know what she meant. That Arthur looked beaten up by life, tough, looked like he knew hunger, knew pain, like no one else. These traits were slowly taking over herself too, transforming her.   
Uhura, sensing the irony, started to laugh, and the soft sun of the spring shone on her face, illuminating her like a religious figure. 

_Where are you from?_ Sadie wanted to ask. _I saw you arrive from the sky like an angel._

She could not ask, needed to keep the advantage. 

In a strange twist of her own mind, she decided to confess another lie instead. 

“Arthur ain’t my brother you know. We just run together, us and Lenny that you met, and a bunch other people.”

Uhura turned her head and looked behind her at the two men of their horses. She sighed softly.

“Some families we have to create ourselves.” She said after a pause. 

Sadie wished she could agree. Far from family they were to her, and sometimes she still wondered why she stayed with them if not just only to avoid loneliness and despair. In many regards that was a good enough reason. 

A few minutes after that, after they were all riding back into town, they were stopped in the middle of the road by five men who had arrived galloping. Mean demeanour, strange twisted expressions. Nadine immediately turned to Spock with a worried look on her face. 

“Look who’s going there. Wanna give us some cash so we leave you alone?” A blonde man who had a hole in his hat and appeared to be the leader asked their group.  
“Now why would we do that?” Arthur grumbled.  
“Can’t take us out with two women and some city guy.” He was referring to Mr Spock, who looked way too smart for the area.   
“We run with Dutch Van Der Linde.” Arthur answered, coldly.   
“That supposed to impress me? Think you impress me?” He had an ugly, exaggerated and hoarse laughter. “Look he thinks he’s scary with his little gang.”  
“My patience is running out, scatter away.” With these words, Arthur was aiming his gun at the leader. Sadie pulled out hers and did the same to another of the men. 

An angry look on the man’s face, and suddenly, guns were going off. Three of the guys quickly fell on the ground, having been shot either on the stomach or in the legs, and only one was still fighting. The leader was stuck under the weight of his horse who had fallen over and you could hear muffled insults coming from him. As Arthur was pursuing the last guy, Sadie saw Spock get down from his horse. He came near the guy and, she could not believe it, freed him by lifting up the horse and dragging him out. Sadie was watching, mesmerized. How could he do that? He did not even seem to struggle. Nadine also got down from her horse and approached the man. He was having a hard time breathing correctly and looked concussed enough to be harmless. Sadie was still a little far away, but she could swear she heard Nadine ask him : 

“Where are the others? Where’s the high chief?”  
The man looked confused and only managed to mutter : “Who are you?” before he passed out, his head against a tree trunk. 

Before Sadie could ask anything, Arthur was back and brushed his hair back with his hand before he said, paternally : 

“Let’s get you back to town quick, before any more show up.” 

He gave a long look to the man and his fallen horse, visibly surprised too, but did not mention it and they all went back to town in haste. 

When they parted, Sadie almost asked more questions to Nadine but the pair looked worried and distant, and it seemed she would disturb them. She memorized their hotel room, though. She wasn’t gonna let them be alone. Wherever they were from, it was not from here. And they were still her best chances against the O’Driscolls, especially now that she had seen what Spock was capable of. Who was he? The bandit was right. Who are you, Nadine?


End file.
